Hiking Colorado National Monument- Fruita, CO

The Rim Rock Drive at Colorado National Monument was a convenient way to admire the iconic red sandstone landmarks there, and to peer into the gaping canyons. (Read post here) After doing that for a few hours it was time to lace up our boots and hit the trails. There was a large assortment of them, plus an additional list of trails outside the monument provided by Pam (Oh the Places). It was hard to pick which ones to follow, but we certainly weren’t disappointed with our choices.

Devils Kitchen Trail

Going down into the canyons and looking up at the massive walls gave us an excellent new perspective of this place. Among so many formations, we didn’t take much notice of a particular one during our drive at the eastern end of Rim Rock Drive, which we later learned was called the Devils Kitchen.

Devils Kitchen as seen from the Serpents Trail

Devils Kitchen is a natural rock room surrounded by Wingate Sandstone formations that provide a lovely resting spot after a fairly steep ascent. In past excursions we’ve seen our share of devilish places – Devils Lake, Devils Den, Devils Hole, Kill Devil Hill, Devils Bathtub and Devils Playground. But I didn’t know a devil could cook, and this short moderately-difficult trail was the way for us to investigate.

Devils Kitchen trailhead. Is Steve saying a little prayer as he walks?

A closer view of “The Kitchen”

Cool rock formations surrounded Devils Kitchen

Steve’s in there searching for the appliances

Inside Devils Kitchen

The sandy trail was lit up with these colorful wildflowers:

Four Wing Saltbush

Indian Paintbrush

Showy Four 0’clock

Taking in the beautiful view. I guess this would be the Devils Patio?

Serpents Trail

This is the most popular hike at the monument, and we had plenty of company on the sunny day we took it. Long before it became a hiking trail, this was an old dirt road once dubbed “the crookedest road in the world.” The only road through Colorado National Monument at the time, its construction began in 1912 and was guided by John Otto.

Completed in 1921, the road encompassed 50 switchback turns and was very steep. In fact, it was so steep that cars had to back up many sections of the road because they didn’t have fuel pumps at the time and relied on gravity to get fuel to the engine. That must have been an exciting drive!

Some curves on the Serpents Trail

That’s quite a balancing act!

By 1950 the old road was closed and converted to a hiking trail. It curves back and forth through Wingate Sandstone for 1.75 miles one way, gaining 770 feet of elevation along the way. At one lookout we could see its replacement, Rim Rock Drive, on the east side of the hill.

Looking down at the replacement of Serpents Trail, the not-as-curvy Rim Rock Drive

Wedding Canyon Trail/Monument Canyon Trail

The Wedding Canyon and Monument Canyon trails both travel 2.5 miles one-way to the base of Independence Monument. On this hike we did what Pam suggested, going out to the monument via the Wedding Canyon Trail and then looping back and returning on the Monument Canyon Trail. The Wedding Canyon Trail follows the national monument boundary for awhile, and we noticed some of Fruita’s high-dollar homes just on the other side of the fence. These folks even have their own rock formations in their back yards!

I want my own rock formation!

The trail makes a turn to the southwest and begins its gradual ascent into Wedding Canyon. We were surrounded on either side by massive sandstone cliffs as we kept our eyes peeled for the Bighorn Sheep that roam the ledges around the canyon. No sightings on this day – maybe next time we should tag along with John and Pam, who seemed to be magnets for these creatures.

Up and out of the canyon

With the abundance of Pinyon Pines here, the Pinyon Jays were abundant

This is what the Pinyon Jays were after

An organ pipe formation came into view

Looking up at Window Rock

Touching Independence Monument – that’s our destination!

Wedding Canyon was so named because of its location where John Otto had his wedding. The folks in the photo below don’t look very happy, and in fact the marriage lasted only a few weeks before John’s wife took off, never to return.

This couple looks much happier!

Two and a half miles from the trailhead we reached a major trail junction and the base of 450-foot Independence Monument. Four trails from each compass direction come together here. We climbed about a hundred feet up the base of Independence Monument just so we could say we touched it, then continued north on Monument Canyon Trail.

OK, that’s far enough!

The city of Fruita, the Colorado River and Book Cliffs as viewed from the foot of Independence Monument

As we headed north on Monument Canyon Trail we saw…

…the Kissing Couple…

…Monument Canyon…

…can you spot the ant in blue shorts in this gigantic canyon?

Among the rocks was a lone Spotted Squirrel enjoying his breakfast

Mushroom Rock

Looking back from the trail, Independence Monument looked so small from a couples miles away. The ups and downs of the trail gave us a good workout and we enjoyed the closeup views of so many sandstone formations and gigantic red canyons. Not being able to hike more of these trails gives us an excellent excuse to come back to check them out, and to enjoy the environment of one of our favorite towns so far – Fruita.

Independence Monument viewed from a couple of miles away

A fiery sunset on our final night at James M Robb Colorado River State Park (Steve’s review here)

The hiking in the monument looks fantastic! It’s definitely a place we want to visit. And I’m intrigued by Fruita, since you it like so much — that means a lot, since you’ve been to so many places in your travels. I’m seeing Colorado in our future next September….

Really gorgeous pictures Mona Liza. I’m so glad you got down in for hiking. Your really did a lot. Love the Devil’s Patio picture and the one of the happy couple. I thought the marriage story of John Otto was a hoot. But I doubt they did.

Looks like a wonderful time! Yes, we also have to return to complete all the trails we didn’t get too. Fruita is a nice little area:) We didn’t take the turn off to Devil’s Kitchen instead continued straight and followed the creek back quite a ways to a very neat waterfall. Next time we will have to swap hikes at the intersection!

The Monument/Wedding Canyon Loop is one of my favorite hikes, but I prefer doing it in the opposite direction. We’ve also done Devil’s Kitchen and Serpents trail several times and it’s always a good workout. Glad you enjoyed Fruita as much as we do.

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The Lowes

We (Steve and Mona Liza) retired early at the beginning of 2012, sold our house and almost all of our belongings and moved into our RV. We are pursuing our dream of traveling the U.S. and Canada for several years and seeing everything and everyplace we can.